- Music
- 20 Mar 01
January are part of the new breed of British acts being signed since the David Gray phenomenon.
These guys have probably been creating music like this for ages but they're now going to be lumped in with the so-called New Acoustic Movement dreamed up by the same British music press who have been happily ignoring the likes of Mojave 3 and The Delgados for years.
I Heard Myself In You is a precious, often mesmerising collection of slow-burning rock songs that wash over you in waves so gentle they barely register, yet have a lingering resonance.
'All Time' starts proceedings like a nu-country lament, with vocals that could have come straight from In Motion or The Last Post. The title track is magnificent, slowly growing from humble beginnings as an alt. country also-ran into a shining, shimmering ballad that glides from your speakers and floats into the part of your head that 90% of bands can never reach.
'Sequence Start' is about as angry as they get (the amps are cranked up to four) and is reminiscent of the late Into Paradise at their best. Then there's the monumental 'Falling In', nine minutes of sonic overhaul, which drags the listener kicking and screaming as it rises and falls in waves of wailing guitars.
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The guitars, both acoustic and electric, manoeuvre across, under, over and within each other, creating rich tapestries of sound, with the vocals gliding around the melody, so that, for the most part, they're just another instrument in the mix. 'Invisible Lines', for example, is so unimposing you almost have to strain just to make sure it's still there.
I Heard Myself In You is a grower in every sense of the word, and an album to really lose yourself in.